US11943797B2 - Inter-node coordination for cross-link interference management - Google Patents

Inter-node coordination for cross-link interference management Download PDF

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US11943797B2
US11943797B2 US17/420,753 US201917420753A US11943797B2 US 11943797 B2 US11943797 B2 US 11943797B2 US 201917420753 A US201917420753 A US 201917420753A US 11943797 B2 US11943797 B2 US 11943797B2
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slot
network node
division duplex
time division
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US20220110136A1 (en
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Jingya Li
Sebastian Faxér
Mårten Sundberg
Petter Ersbo
Naga Vishnu Kanth Irukulapati
Filip BARAC
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Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson AB
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    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04W—WIRELESS COMMUNICATION NETWORKS
    • H04W72/00—Local resource management
    • H04W72/20—Control channels or signalling for resource management
    • H04W72/27—Control channels or signalling for resource management between access points
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04L—TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION
    • H04L5/00—Arrangements affording multiple use of the transmission path
    • H04L5/14—Two-way operation using the same type of signal, i.e. duplex
    • H04L5/1469—Two-way operation using the same type of signal, i.e. duplex using time-sharing
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04W—WIRELESS COMMUNICATION NETWORKS
    • H04W72/00—Local resource management
    • H04W72/50—Allocation or scheduling criteria for wireless resources
    • H04W72/54—Allocation or scheduling criteria for wireless resources based on quality criteria
    • H04W72/542—Allocation or scheduling criteria for wireless resources based on quality criteria using measured or perceived quality
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04B—TRANSMISSION
    • H04B17/00—Monitoring; Testing
    • H04B17/30—Monitoring; Testing of propagation channels
    • H04B17/309—Measuring or estimating channel quality parameters
    • H04B17/345—Interference values
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04L—TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION
    • H04L5/00—Arrangements affording multiple use of the transmission path
    • H04L5/0091—Signalling for the administration of the divided path, e.g. signalling of configuration information
    • H04L5/0092—Indication of how the channel is divided
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04W—WIRELESS COMMUNICATION NETWORKS
    • H04W72/00—Local resource management
    • H04W72/50—Allocation or scheduling criteria for wireless resources
    • H04W72/535—Allocation or scheduling criteria for wireless resources based on resource usage policies
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04W—WIRELESS COMMUNICATION NETWORKS
    • H04W72/00—Local resource management
    • H04W72/50—Allocation or scheduling criteria for wireless resources
    • H04W72/54—Allocation or scheduling criteria for wireless resources based on quality criteria
    • H04W72/541—Allocation or scheduling criteria for wireless resources based on quality criteria using the level of interference
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04W—WIRELESS COMMUNICATION NETWORKS
    • H04W92/00—Interfaces specially adapted for wireless communication networks
    • H04W92/16—Interfaces between hierarchically similar devices
    • H04W92/20—Interfaces between hierarchically similar devices between access points
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04L—TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION
    • H04L5/00—Arrangements affording multiple use of the transmission path
    • H04L5/0001—Arrangements for dividing the transmission path
    • H04L5/0014—Three-dimensional division
    • H04L5/0023—Time-frequency-space
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04L—TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION
    • H04L5/00—Arrangements affording multiple use of the transmission path
    • H04L5/003—Arrangements for allocating sub-channels of the transmission path
    • H04L5/0048—Allocation of pilot signals, i.e. of signals known to the receiver
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04L—TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION
    • H04L5/00—Arrangements affording multiple use of the transmission path
    • H04L5/14—Two-way operation using the same type of signal, i.e. duplex
    • H04L5/1461—Suppression of signals in the return path, i.e. bidirectional control circuits
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04W—WIRELESS COMMUNICATION NETWORKS
    • H04W72/00—Local resource management
    • H04W72/04—Wireless resource allocation
    • H04W72/044—Wireless resource allocation based on the type of the allocated resource
    • H04W72/0446—Resources in time domain, e.g. slots or frames

Definitions

  • the present invention generally relates to wireless communication networks, and particularly relates to cross-link interference (CLI) mitigation.
  • CLI cross-link interference
  • Wireless cellular networks are built up of cells, each cell defined by a certain coverage area of a network node (NN).
  • the NN communicates with user equipment (UE) in the network wirelessly.
  • the communication is carried out in either paired or unpaired spectrum.
  • DL downlink
  • UL uplink
  • FDD Frequency Division Duplex
  • TDD Time Division Duplex
  • the DL and UL use the same spectrum, called TDD.
  • GP guard period
  • a GP serves several purposes. Most essentially, the processing circuitry at the NN and UE needs sufficient time to switch between transmission and reception.
  • the GP at the DL-to-UL switch must be sufficiently large to allow a UE to receive a possibly time-delayed DL grant scheduling the UL and transmit the UL signal with proper timing advance (compensating for the propagation delay) such that it is received in the UL part of the frame at the NN.
  • the GP at the UL-to-DL switch is created with an offset to the timing advance.
  • the GP should be larger than twice the propagation time towards a UE at the cell edge, otherwise, the UL and DL signals in the cell will interfere. Because of this, the GP is typically chosen to depend on the cell size such that larger cells (i.e. cells with large inter-site distances) have a larger GP than a small cell.
  • the GP reduces DL-to-UL interference between NNs by allowing a certain propagation delay between cells without having the DL transmission of a first NN enter the UL reception of a second NN.
  • the DL transmission power can be in the order of 20 dB larger than the UL transmission power, and the pathloss between NNs, that may be situated above roof top and in line of sight (LOS), may often be much smaller than the pathloss between NNs and UEs (in non-LOS).
  • LOS line of sight
  • TDD macro networks are typically operated in a synchronized and aligned fashion where the symbol timing is aligned and a semi-static TDD UL/DL pattern is used which is the same for all the cells in the network; by aligning UL and DL periods so that they do not occur simultaneously the thinking is to reduce interference between UL and DL.
  • operators with adjacent TDD carriers also synchronize their TDD UL/DL patterns to avoid adjacent CLI.
  • FIG. 1 The principle of applying a GP at the DL-to-UL switch to avoid DL-to-UL interference between NNs is shown in FIG. 1 where a victim NN (V) is being (at least potentially) interfered by an aggressor NN (A).
  • the aggressor NN A is sending a DL signal to a device in its cell, and the DL signal is also reaching the victim NN V as the propagation loss is not enough to protect it from the signals of aggressor NN A.
  • Victim NN V is trying to receive a signal from another terminal (not shown in the figure) in its cell.
  • the signal has propagated a distance (d) and due to propagation delay, the experienced frame structure alignment of A at V is shifted/delayed ⁇ second, proportional to the propagation distance d.
  • the aggressor DL signal does of course undergo attenuation, but may due to differences in transmit powers in terminals and NNs as well as propagation condition differences for NN-to-NN links and UE-to-NN links be very high relative to the received victim UL signal.
  • victim and aggressor is only used here to illustrate why typical TDD systems are designed as they are.
  • the victim can also act as an aggressor and vice versa and even simultaneously since channel reciprocity exists between the NN.
  • NR uses Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) in the DL (i.e. from an NN, gNB, eNB, or base station, to a user equipment or UE).
  • OFDM Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing
  • the basic NR physical resource over an antenna port can thus be seen as a time-frequency grid as illustrated in FIG. 2 , where a resource block (RB) in a 14-symbol slot is shown.
  • a RB corresponds to 12 contiguous subcarriers in the frequency domain.
  • Each resource element corresponds to one OFDM subcarrier during one OFDM symbol interval.
  • Each resource element corresponds to one OFDM subcarrier during one OFDM symbol interval.
  • Different subcarrier spacing values are supported in NR.
  • ⁇ f 15 kHz is the basic (or reference) subcarrier spacing that is also used in LTE.
  • DL and UL transmissions in NR will be organized into equally-sized subframes of 1 ms each, similar to LTE.
  • a subframe is further divided into multiple slots of equal duration.
  • There is only one slot per subframe at ⁇ f 15 kHz and a slot consists of 14 OFDM symbols.
  • DL transmissions are dynamically scheduled, i.e., in each slot the gNB transmits DL control information (DCI) about which UE data is to be transmitted to and which RBs in the current DL slot the data is to be transmitted on.
  • DCI DL control information
  • This control information is typically transmitted in the first one or two OFDM symbols in each slot in NR.
  • the control information is carried on the Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH) and data is carried on the Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH).
  • PDCCH Physical Downlink Control Channel
  • PDSCH Physical Downlink Shared Channel
  • a UE first detects and decodes PDCCH and if a PDCCH is decoded successfully, it then decodes the corresponding PDSCH based on the decoded control information in the PDCCH.
  • RSs reference signals
  • UL data transmissions carried on Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) are also dynamically scheduled by the gNB by transmitting a DCI.
  • the DCI (which is transmitted in the DL region) always indicates a scheduling offset so that the PUSCH is transmitted in a slot in the UL region.
  • some subframes/slots are allocated for UL transmissions and some subframes/slots are allocated for DL transmissions.
  • the switch between DL and UL occurs in the so called special subframes in LTE or flexible slots in NR.
  • Frame structure type 1 is applicable to FDD only
  • frame structure type 2 is applicable to TDD only
  • frame structure type 3 is applicable to licensed assisted access (LAA) secondary cell operation only.
  • LAA licensed assisted access
  • each radio frame of length 10 ms consists of two half-frames of length 5 ms each.
  • Each half-frame consists of five subframes (SFs) of length 1 ms.
  • Each subframe (SF) is defined by two slots of length 0.5 ms each.
  • SFs subframes
  • DL/UL configurations are supported for FS 2.
  • D denotes a DL SF
  • U denotes an UL SF
  • S represents a special SF.
  • Configurations 0, 1, 2, and 6 have 5 ms DL-to-UL switch-point periodicity, with the special SF exists in both SF 1 and SF 6.
  • Configurations 3, 4 and 5 have 10 ms DL-to-UL switch-point periodicity, with the special SF in SF 1 only.
  • a special SF is split into three parts: a DL part (DwPTS), a GP, and an UL part (UpPTS).
  • DwPTS DL part
  • UpPTS UL part
  • Table 2 a set of DwPTS/GP/UpPTS configurations is supported, as illustrated in Table 2, where X denotes the number of symbols that can be additionally configured for Sounding Reference Signal (SRS) enhancement.
  • SRS Sounding Reference Signal
  • the DwPTS with a duration more than 3 symbols can be treated as a normal DL SF for data transmission.
  • the UpPTS is not used for data transmission due to its very short duration for special SF configurations 0-9. Instead, the UpPTS for these configurations can be used for channel sounding or random access.
  • special SF configuration 10 was introduced for uplink coverage enhancement, and the UpPTS of this configuration can be used for uplink data transmission.
  • the DL/UL configuration and the configuration of the special SF used in a cell are signaled as part of the system information, which is included in system-information block 1 (SIB1) and broadcasted every 80 ms within SF 5.
  • SIB1 system-information block 1
  • the enhanced Interference Mitigation and Traffic Adaptation (eIMTA) feature was introduced in LTE Rel-12 to allow for dynamic and flexible configuration of TDD UL/DL resources. More specifically, a UE can be configured by higher layers to monitor PDCCHs with cyclic redundancy check (CRC) scrambled by eIMTA-RNTI. By detecting the DCI carried on the PDCCHs (i.e., DCI format 1C), the UE knows the reconfigured TDD UL/DL configurations for one or more serving cell(s).
  • CRC cyclic redundancy check
  • the reconfigured TDD UL/DL configuration for each serving cell is selected from the seven configurations defined in Table 1 and signaled by the corresponding 3-bit UL/DL configuration index filed in the DCI.
  • Table 3 illustrates the eIMTA based flexible TDD frame structure, where “F” denotes a flexible SF, which can be configured either to UL or DL, depending on which TDD UL/DL configuration is selected.
  • the TDD UL/DL reconfiguration can be operated on a radio frame basis, and the reconfiguration can be applied for a few radio frames configured by higher layer parameters.
  • NR supports semi-static TDD UL/DL configurations by cell-specific RRC (Radio Resource Control) signaling (TDD-UL-DL-ConfigurationCommon in SIB1).
  • TDD-UL-DL-ConfigurationCommon in SIB1
  • up to two concatenated TDD DL-UL patterns can be configured in NR.
  • Each TDD DL-UL pattern is defined by a number of consecutive full DL slots at the beginning of the TDD pattern (nrofDownlinkSlots), a number of consecutive DL symbols in the slot following the full DL slots (nrofDownlinkSymbols), a number of symbols between DL and UL segments (GP, or flexible symbols), a number of UL symbols in the end of the slot preceding the first full UL slot (nrofUplinkSymbols), and a number of consecutive full UL slots at the end of the TDD pattern (nrofUplinkSlots).
  • the periodicity of a TDD DL-UL pattern (dl-UL-TransmissionPeriodicity) can be configured ranging from 0.5 ms to 10 ms.
  • a UE can be additionally configured by a UE-specific RRC signaling (TDD-UL-DL-ConfigDedicated) to override only the flexible symbols provided in the cell-specific semi-static TDD configuration.
  • TDD-UL-DL-ConfigDedicated UE-specific RRC signaling
  • NR supports dynamic TDD, that is, dynamical signalling of the DL, flexible, and UL allocation on symbol level for one or multiple slots to a group of UEs by using a Slot Format Indicator (SFI) in the DCI carried on a group-common PDCCH (DCI Format 2_0).
  • SFI Slot Format Indicator
  • the SFI filed in a DCI format 2_0 indicates a slot format for each slot in a number of slots starting from a slot where the DCI format 2_0 is detected.
  • a slot format is identified by a corresponding format index as provided in Table 4, where ‘D’ denotes a downlink symbol, ‘U’ denotes an uplink symbol, and ‘F’ denotes a flexible symbol.
  • the dynamic SFI cannot override the DL and UL transmission directions that are semi-statically configured via the cell-specific RRC signalling, neither can it override a dynamically scheduled DL or UL transmissions.
  • the SFI can override a symbol period semi-statically indicated as flexible by restricting it to be DL or UL.
  • the SFI can be used to provide a reserved resource, that is, if both the SFI and the semi-static signalling indicate a certain symbol to be flexible, then, the symbol should be treated as reserved and not be used for transmission.
  • the support for dynamic TDD enables NR to maximally utilize available radio resource in the most efficient way for both traffic directions.
  • dynamic TDD brings significant performance gain at low to medium loads, the performance benefits become smaller as the traffic load increases due to the CLI.
  • UE1 in DL experiences very strong interference from UE2 which can be closer than the serving NN1.
  • NN2 in UL perspective NN2 will also experience interference from NN1 since NN1 is transmitting in DL.
  • CLI is the main impediment to performance gains from dynamic TDD operation at higher loads as compared to static TDD.
  • Most solutions to minimize the CLI involve defining signaling between NNs in order to exchange information regarding the sources and the levels of interference in the operator network.
  • the situation can also be illustrated on symbol level where the different NNs use different transmission directions in different symbols, see FIG. 4 , assuming that in a given slot, the format index 48 is configured for the UEs in NN1 and the format index 49 is configured for the UEs in NN2.
  • the situation shown in FIG. 3 occurs in symbol index 2, 3, 9 and 10 of FIG. 4 .
  • PRACH Physical Random Access Channel
  • PRACH Physical Random Access Channel
  • Zadoff-Chu sequences are used for generating NR random-access preambles due to their favourable properties, including constant amplitude before and after DFT operation, zero cyclic auto-correlation and low cross-correlation.
  • NR random-access preamble supports two different sequence lengths with different format configurations, as shown in FIG. 5 , to handle the wide range of deployments for which NR is designed.
  • the short preamble formats can be used in both FR1 with subcarrier spacing of 15 or 30 kHz and FR2 with subcarrier spacing of 60 or 120 kHz.
  • the basic design principle for PRACH preamble is that the last part of each preamble OFDM symbol acts as a CP for the next OFDM symbol.
  • the length of a preamble OFDM symbol equals the length of data OFDM symbols. This new design allows the gNB receiver to use the same fast Fourier transform for data and random-access preamble detection.
  • the new short preamble formats are more robust against time varying channels and frequency errors.
  • the time and frequency resource on which a PRACH preamble is transmitted is defined as a PRACH occasion.
  • the time resources and preamble format for PRACH transmission is configured by a PRACH configuration index, which indicates a row in a PRACH configuration table specified in TS 38.211 V15.2.0 Tables 6.3.3.2-2, 6.3.3.2-3, 6.3.3.2-4 for FR1 paired spectrum, FR1 unpaired spectrum and FR2 with unpaired spectrum.
  • PRACH occasions in the UL part are always valid, and a PRACH occasion within the X part is valid as long as it does not precede or collide with an SSB in the RACH slot and it is at least N symbols after the DL part and the last symbol of an SSB.
  • N is 0 or 2 depending on PRACH format and subcarrier spacing.
  • NR supports multiple frequency-multiplexed PRACH occasions on the same time-domain PRACH occasion. This is mainly motivated by the support of analog beam sweeping in NR such that the PRACH occasions associated to one SSB are configured at the same time instance but different locations.
  • the number of PRACH occasions frequency division multiplexed in one time-domain PRACH occasion can be 1, 2, 4, or 8.
  • FIG. 6 gives an example of the PRACH occasion configuration in NR.
  • CLI measurements can be adopted. These measurements can be based on for example the total received signal, e.g. RSSI (Received Signal Strength Indicator), or the received signal strength from a specific set of transmitting NN/UE, e.g. RSRP (Received Signal Reference Power).
  • RSSI Receiveived Signal Strength Indicator
  • RSRP Receiveived Signal Reference Power
  • the intended DL/UL transmission direction configuration can include the parameters such as the periodicity, the numerology, the slot format for each slot within a period, etc. And this intended DL/UL Tx direction configuration is repeatedly applied till it is newly updated.
  • This method may provide a network node with very detailed information on the intended dynamic TDD pattern to be used in the neighboring nodes.
  • this solution requires significant amount of information exchange via backhaul, which may significantly increase the backhaul signaling load.
  • the network node may adapt its TDD configuration dynamically, where the updates also need to be communicated to other network nodes. This puts significant requirements on the backhaul latency as well.
  • dynamic exchange of intended DL/UL transmission configurations among network nodes via backhaul signaling is not feasible nor reliable.
  • the time domain resources are classified as fixed time resources and flexible time resources.
  • the information of the fixed/flexible resource classification is exchanged between different network nodes or different sets of network-nodes for assisting the CLI coordination and CLI mitigation.
  • a method performed by a receiving network node for cross-link interference, CLI, mitigation comprises receiving, from at least one sending network node, a time division duplex configuration of the at least one sending network node.
  • the time division duplex configuration is identifying at least one slot of the time division duplex configuration as either a fixed uplink slot for which all symbols are for uplink transmission or a fixed downlink slot for which all symbols are for downlink transmission; and at least one slot of the time division duplex configuration as a flexible slot for which at least one symbol has an undefined transmission direction and the remaining symbols of the slot, if any, have a defined transmission direction which is either uplink or downlink.
  • the method further comprises adapting operations in a cell based on the received time division duplex configuration for mitigating CLI with the at least one sending network node.
  • a method performed by a sending network node for cross-link interference, CLI, mitigation comprises determining a time division duplex configuration of the sending node.
  • the time division duplex configuration identifies at least one slot of the time division duplex configuration as either a fixed uplink slot for which all symbols are for uplink transmission or a fixed downlink slot for which all symbols are for downlink transmission; and at least one slot of the time division duplex configuration as a flexible slot for which at least one symbol has an undefined transmission direction and the remaining symbols of the slot, if any, have a defined transmission direction which is either uplink or downlink transmission.
  • the method further comprises sending, to at least one receiving network node, the determined time division duplex configuration, for enabling CLI mitigation by the at least one receiving network node.
  • a receiving network node and a sending network node configured to perform the methods according to the first and second aspect described above are provided.
  • one technical advantage may be that the backhaul signaling overhead can be significantly reduced as compared to the existing solution for CLI mitigation by dynamic exchange of intended TDD configurations.
  • Another technical advantage may be that certain embodiments enable a NN to know the fixed resources configured for neighboring network nodes. By utilizing this information, the NN can protect the important channels/signals by scheduling or configuring them on resources that are unaffected by CLI. This information can be also used to assist the network node to do more efficient interference measurement resource configurations.
  • the receiving NN can consider the information on configuration used to be fixed for the “foreseeable future” and hence the decision on how to best utilize the radio resources can be taken by each NN individually and the need for any central decision node is removed.
  • Still another technical advantage may be that certain embodiments more proactively protect the PRACH by taking the SSB and PRACH configuration into account when classifying the time resources into fixed and flexible resources.
  • FIG. 1 is a schematic illustration of the principle of applying a GP for TDD to avoid DL-to-UL interference between NNs.
  • FIG. 2 is a schematic illustration of an NR physical resource grid.
  • FIG. 3 is a schematic illustration of the CLI issue in dynamic TDD.
  • FIG. 4 is a schematic illustration of the CLI issue in an NR dynamic TDD in a given slot.
  • FIG. 5 is a schematic illustration of NR PRACH where 15 KHz subcarrier spacing is assumed for PRACH formats with short sequence length.
  • FIG. 6 is a schematic illustration of a PRACH configuration in NR.
  • FIG. 7 is a schematic illustration of an example of two network nodes with different TDD semi-static UL-DL configurations.
  • FIG. 8 is a schematic illustration of an example of two network nodes with the same cell-specific semi-static TDD UL-DL configurations.
  • FIG. 9 is a schematic illustration of an example of two network nodes with the same cell-specific semi-static TDD UL-DL configurations as shown in FIG. 8 where some of the flexible slots are restricted to be DL or UL.
  • FIG. 10 is a schematic illustration of an example of extracted flexible slots indicated by the cell-specific semi-static TDD UL-DL configurations as shown in FIG. 8 , and some of the flexible slots are restricted to be DL or UL.
  • FIG. 11 is a block diagram illustrating a wireless network in accordance with some embodiments.
  • FIG. 12 is a block diagram illustrating a virtualization environment in which functions implemented by some embodiments may be virtualized.
  • FIGS. 13 a - d are flowcharts schematically illustrating methods according to embodiments.
  • FIGS. 14 a - b are block diagrams illustrating virtual apparatus according to embodiments.
  • a network node can correspond to any type of radio network node or any network node, which communicates with a UE (directly or via another node) and/or with another network node.
  • network nodes are NodeB, base station (BS), integrated access and backhaul (IAB) node, multi-standard radio (MSR) radio node such as MSR BS, eNodeB, gNodeB.
  • BS base station
  • IAB integrated access and backhaul
  • MSR multi-standard radio
  • MeNB SeNB
  • network controller radio network controller (RNC), base station controller (BSC), road side unit (RSU), relay, donor node controlling relay, base transceiver station (BTS), access point (AP), transmission points, transmission nodes, RRU, RRH, nodes in distributed antenna system (DAS), core network node (e.g. MSC, MME etc), O&M, OSS, SON, positioning node (e.g. E-SMLC).
  • RNC radio network controller
  • BSC base station controller
  • RSU road side unit
  • relay donor node controlling relay
  • BTS base transceiver station
  • AP access point
  • transmission points transmission nodes
  • RRU RRU
  • RRH nodes in distributed antenna system
  • nodes in distributed antenna system DAS
  • core network node e.g. MSC, MME etc
  • O&M core network node
  • OSS e.g. MSC, MME etc
  • SON positioning node
  • network nodes are NodeB, MeNB, eNB, a network node belonging to MCG or SCG, base station (BS), multi-standard radio (MSR) radio node such as MSR BS, eNodeB, gNodeB, network controller, radio network controller (RNC), base station controller (BSC), relay, donor node controlling relay, base transceiver station (BTS), access point (AP), transmission points, transmission nodes, RRU, RRH, nodes in distributed antenna system (DAS), core network node (e.g. MSC, MME, etc), O&M, OSS, SON, positioning node (e.g. E-SMLC), MDT, test equipment (physical node or software).
  • a NN can also correspond to a distributed gNB or BS, or to any one of the controlling unit and the distributed unit of a distributed BS.
  • the non-limiting term user equipment (UE) or wireless device may be used and may refer to any type of wireless device communicating with a network node and/or with another UE in a cellular or mobile communication system.
  • UE are target device, device to device (D2D) UE, machine type UE or UE capable of machine to machine (M2M) communication, PDA, PAD, Tablet, mobile terminals, smart phone, laptop embedded equipped (LEE), laptop mounted equipment (LME), USB dongles, UE category M1, UE category M2, ProSe UE, V2V UE, V2X UE.
  • D2D device to device
  • M2M machine to machine
  • PDA machine to machine
  • PAD machine to machine
  • Tablet mobile terminals
  • smart phone laptop embedded equipped (LEE), laptop mounted equipment (LME), USB dongles
  • UE category M1, UE category M2, ProSe UE, V2V UE, V2X UE can be generalized to correspond to a user terminal, or a network node
  • An UL can be generalized to correspond to UL in the access link, and UL in the wireless backhaul link.
  • a DL can be generalized to correspond to DL in the access link, and DL in the wireless backhaul link.
  • radio access technology may refer to any RAT e.g. UTRA, E-UTRA, narrow band internet of things (NB-IoT), WiFi, Bluetooth, next generation RAT (NR), 4G, 5G, etc.
  • RAT may refer to any RAT e.g. UTRA, E-UTRA, narrow band internet of things (NB-IoT), WiFi, Bluetooth, next generation RAT (NR), 4G, 5G, etc.
  • NB-IoT narrow band internet of things
  • NR next generation RAT
  • 4G Fifth Generation
  • 5G 5G
  • the term signal used herein can be any physical signal or physical channel.
  • Examples of downlink physical signals are reference signals (RSs) such as PSS, SSS, CRS, PRS, CSI-RS, DMRS, NRS, NPSS, NSSS, SS, MBSFN RS etc.
  • Examples of uplink physical signals are RSs such as SRS, DMRS etc.
  • the term physical channel (e.g., in the context of channel reception) used herein is also called as ‘channel.
  • the physical channel carries higher layer information (e.g. RRC, logical control channel etc).
  • terminologies such as base station/gNodeB and UE should be considered non-limiting and do not imply a certain hierarchical relation between the two.
  • information exchange among different network nodes can provide a network node with additional knowledge on the CLI situation, and thereby making a better decision for CLI mitigation and increasing network performance.
  • challenges e.g. backhaul signaling overhead, backhaul latency constraints, gNB/NN processing complexity, a lack of a centralized processing, etc., which make it difficult to achieve any performance gain via network coordination.
  • the performance gains are even more difficult to realize in multi-vendor scenarios, where the timing and the latency of x2 message exchange can vary between different vendors, and the CLI mitigation schemes can be selected differently by different vendors.
  • TDD-UL-DL-ConfigurationCommon in SIB1
  • Up to two concatenated TDD DL-UL patterns can be configured in NR.
  • Each TDD DL-UL pattern is defined by a number of consecutive full DL slots at the beginning of the TDD pattern (nrofDownlinkSlots), a number of consecutive DL symbols in the slot following the full DL slots (nrofDownlinkSymbols), a number of symbols between DL and UL segments (GP, or flexible symbols), a number of UL symbols in the end of the slot preceding the first full UL slot (nrofUplinkSymbols), and a number of consecutive full UL slots at the end of the TDD pattern (nrofUplinkSlots).
  • the periodicity of a TDD DL-UL pattern (DL-UL-TransmissionPeriodicity) can be configured ranging from 0.5 ms to 10 ms.
  • a UE can be additionally configured by UE-specific RRC signaling (TDD-UL-DL-ConfigDedicated) to override only the flexible symbols provided in the cell-specific semi-static TDD configuration.
  • TDD-UL-DL-ConfigDedicated UE-specific RRC signaling
  • NR supports dynamic TDD, that is, dynamical configuring of the DL, flexible, and UL symbols for one or multiple slots for a group of UEs.
  • Dynamic TDD configuration is enabled by using a Slot Format Indicator (SFI) in the DCI carried on a group-common PDCCH (DCI Format 2_0).
  • a slot format is identified by a corresponding format index.
  • the dynamic SFI cannot override the DL and UL transmission directions that are semi-statically configured via the cell-specific RRC signalling, neither can it override a dynamically scheduled DL or UL transmissions. However, the SFI can override a symbol period semi-statically indicated as flexible by restricting it to be DL or UL.
  • the SFI can be used to provide a reserved resource, that is, if both the SFI and the semi-static signalling indicate a certain symbol to be flexible, then, the symbol should be treated as reserved and not be used for transmission.
  • the intended DL/UL transmission direction configuration can include the parameters like the TDD periodicity, the numerology, the slot format for each slot within the period, etc.
  • This method can provide a network node with very detailed information on the intended dynamic TDD pattern to be used in the neighbouring nodes.
  • this solution requires significant amount of information exchange via backhaul, which may significantly increase the backhaul signaling load.
  • the network node may adapt its TDD configuration dynamically. This puts significant requirements on the backhaul latency as well.
  • dynamic exchange of intended DL/UL transmission configurations among network nodes via backhaul signalling is not feasible nor reliable.
  • An alternative solution proposed herein is to divide the time resources of each network node into fixed and flexible resources and to let different network notes exchange their fixed/flexible resource configurations via backhaul signalling.
  • the transmission directions on the fixed time resources may change over time but are not expected to change frequently.
  • One example is to exchange the cell-specific TDD configuration among neighboring nodes. After receiving the configuration of time resources from multiple network nodes, a given network node can take the union of the provided configurations to understand if a given transmission direction is common to all network nodes considered, and hence can consider these set of resources as “protected from CLI”. Other resource can conversely be potentially considered impacted by CLI.
  • the receiving network node can consider the fixed resources for the “foreseeable future”, hence, the decision on how to best utilize the radio resources can be taken by each network node individually without a need for any central decision node or joint scheduling. For instance, a network node may transmit important DL signals/channels, such as SSB and the PDCCH/PDSCH of URLLC traffic in the common fixed DL slots. And a network node may also configure the PRACH resources or other important UL traffic such as URLLC PUSCH in the common fixed UL slots. Furthermore, the fixed/flexible resource information exchange can be used to assist a network node to do more efficient interference measurement resource (IMR) configurations.
  • IMR interference measurement resource
  • inter-NN exchange e.g. between gNBs
  • inter-NN exchange of intended UL/DL configuration
  • SSB/RACH configuration related exchange such as the detailed message format, interpretation of remaining resources, and SSB/RACH configuration related exchange.
  • different types of coordination message exchanges are discussed.
  • One solution proposed herein is to divide the time resources of each NN into fixed and flexible resources and let the network nodes exchange their fixed/flexible resource configurations via backhaul signaling.
  • the transmission directions on the fixed time resources are expected to be static for some foreseeable amount of time (but may change slowly), while the flexible resources can potentially change transmission direction as often as each TTI.
  • a given NN can take the union of the provided configurations to understand if a given transmission direction is common to all NNs considered, and hence “protected” from CLI.
  • the other resources can then be considered potentially impacted by CLI.
  • slots 1-3 and 9-10 within each radio frame are indicated as fixed DL slots and fixed UL slots, respectively, while slots 4-8 are indicated as flexible.
  • the interpretation is instead that resources not indicated as UL or DL shall be interpreted as unused resources, the consequence would be that much more frequent dynamic signaling of the intended TDD configuration for each TTI would be needed.
  • the neighboring NNs would need to coordinate for each TTI their actual scheduling decisions.
  • the backhaul signaling is also associated with a delay (typically in the order of 5-15 ms for Xn interface), it is not clear how such short-term signaling can be useful to the receiver as it quickly becomes outdated.
  • interpreting the resources instead as flexible would significantly reduce the backhaul signaling overhead, as well as the backhaul latency requirement.
  • the receiving NN can instead consider that the fixed/flexible resource indication is valid for the “foreseeable future”, until it receives a new message.
  • Each NN can individually decide how to best utilize its available radio resources based on the information received from its neighbors. For instance, a NN may transmit important DL signals/channels, such as SSB and the PDCCH/PDSCH of URLLC traffic in the common fixed DL slots. ANN may also configure the PRACH resources or other important UL traffic such as URLLC PUSCH in the common fixed UL slots.
  • important DL signals/channels such as SSB and the PDCCH/PDSCH of URLLC traffic in the common fixed DL slots.
  • ANN may also configure the PRACH resources or other important UL traffic such as URLLC PUSCH in the common fixed UL slots.
  • Any slot/symbol not designated DL or UL is thus interpreted as a flexible slot/symbol.
  • the fixed/flexible resource information exchange can be also used to assist a NN to do more efficient interference measurement resource (IMR) configurations.
  • IMR interference measurement resource
  • TDD-UL-DL-SlotConfig IE
  • a DL-UL-TransmissionPeriodicity in ms is defined together with a referenceSubcarrierSpacing. Together, these two entities define the number of slots in the TDD periodicity.
  • a list of TDD-UL-DL-SlotConfig can then be given, where each TDD-UL-DL-SlotConfig indicates whether a slot with a certain slotIndex in the TDD periodicity is explicitly configured as either consisting of “all downlink symbols”, “all uplink symbols” or “a number of downlink symbols and a number of uplink symbols”.
  • the slots/symbols which are not configured as UL or DL are interpreted as flexible.
  • the NN could indicate a DL-UL-TransmissionPeriodicity which corresponds to the concatenated TDD pattern periodicity P_1+P_2 (or only P_1 if non-concatenated TDD pattern is used).
  • the NN knows that it will in practice use a TDD pattern with larger periodicity (e.g.
  • the intended TDD pattern exchanged over Xn may or may not correspond to any UE-common or UE-dedicated signalling.
  • an SSB or PRACH resource configured to a UE can override resources configured as flexible by the common or dedicated TDD configuration, and these resources may be transmitted with a longer periodicity than the TDD pattern periodicity.
  • the NN could indicate intended UL/DL configuration for a longer effective TDD periodicity than it is possible to configure to a UE and hence it could include the effect of such SSB/PRACH resources.
  • Inter-NN message exchange of fixed/flexible UL/DL resources can use a longer periodicity than that which can be signaled as TDD periodicity in SIB1, and can hence capture that configured SSB/PRACH resources create a larger effective TDD periodicity compared to the TDD periodicity configured in SIB1.
  • the exchange of SSB position and periodicity between neighboring NNs is already possible, according to the current XnAP specification. Thus, no new signalling needs to be introduced.
  • PRACH occasions it has been already agreed in NR Rel-15 that PRACH occasions in the UL part are always valid, and a PRACH occasion present in symbols configured as flexible is valid as long as it does not precede or collide with an SSB in the RACH slot and it is at least N symbols after the DL part and the last symbol of an SSB.
  • N is 0 or 2, depending on PRACH format and subcarrier spacing.
  • a NN can schedule PRACH occasions such that they fall into these ‘fixed UL’ slots. Therefore, there is no need to have PRACH configuration exchange.
  • the current XnAP specification along with the proposed intended DL/UL configuration exchange is sufficient for NN coordination and there is no need of SSB/RACH configuration information exchange.
  • a solution includes classifying the time resources of a NN or a set of NNs into two types: fixed time resources and flexible time resources. Then, this fixed/flexible resource classification is exchanged between different NNs or different sets of NNs for CLI mitigation by partially coordinated transmission.
  • a fixed time resource implies that the time resources may change over time but are not expected to change frequently.
  • the fixed time resources include the fixed UL resources that can only be used for UL transmissions/receptions, the fixed DL resources that can only be used for DL transmissions/receptions, and possibly the reserved resources not to be used for communication.
  • the fixed and flexible resource classification can be done on different granularities, e.g., a slot level or a symbol level, and can be indicated in different ways via the backhaul, e.g., the exact TDD config, or as delta info relative to a common reference TDD config.
  • a given NN After receiving the configuration of time resources from multiple NNs, a given NN can take the union of the provided configurations to understand if a given transmission direction is common to all NNs considered, and hence can consider these sets of resources as protected from CLI. Other resources can conversely be considered potentially impacted by CLI.
  • additional details are disclosed relating to the exchange of information of fixed and flexible resources.
  • the exchanged information may consist of two parts that can be exchanged in different time scales.
  • the first part carries the cell-specific TDD configuration and a network node only signals this first part information to other network nodes when the cell-specific TDD configuration is updated in SIB1.
  • the second part carries the network node's intention on the long-term usage of the flexible resourced configured in SIB1, i.e., the intended or planned fixed and flexible resources classification within the SIB1-configured flexible resources.
  • the second part of the information can be exchanged more often than the first part of the information, e.g., based on long-term traffic situation changes in the network.
  • the exchanged information may cover both the cell-specific TDD configuration and the intended usage of the SIB1-configured flexible resources for DL/UL transmissions.
  • certain embodiments disclosed herein add conditions on fixed and flexible resource classification, by taking SSB and PRACH configurations into account.
  • the coordination messages are transmitted over the Xn interface between neighboring NNs.
  • the coordination messages are transmitted over the F1 interface within the involved NNs.
  • proprietary backhaul signaling is used.
  • the backhaul signaling is routed via the core network.
  • two NNs are considered with different semi-static TDD UL-DL configurations: the cell-specific semi-static TDD configuration for NN1 is formed by a concatenation of two TDD patterns, DDDFUU and DDFU; and the cell-specific semi-static TDD configuration for NN2 is formed by a concatenation of another two TDD patterns, DDFF and DDFUUU, as shown in FIG. 7 .
  • This can be the case for the access links when the NNs belong to different operators with only semi-synchronized TDD configurations. it can also be the case for the wireless backhaul links when the IAB nodes are associated to un-synced parent nodes.
  • ‘D’ denotes a downlink slot where all symbols have DL Tx direction
  • ‘U’ denotes an uplink slot where all symbols have UL Tx direction
  • ‘F’ denotes a flexible slot where some or all symbols can have flexible Tx directions.
  • the TDD configurations shown in FIG. 7 can be achieved by, e.g., configuring the TDD-UL-DL-ConfigurationCommon field for NN1 as:
  • the fixed and flexible resource classification can be done with different granularities, i.e. either with a slot level granularity or with a symbol level granularity, or with a mix of the two as described below.
  • the resources for NN1 can be classified as
  • the slot-level based classification can be enough for protecting important channels or signals and for assisting the network node to configure proper interference measurement resources.
  • a modified TDD-UL-DL-ConfigurationCommon field can be exchanged among different network nodes or different sets of network nodes via backhaul to indicate the fixed and flexible resource classification.
  • the modification could consist in removing the parameters nrofDownlinkSymbols and nrofUplinkSymbols,
  • the network can change between resource classification on a symbol level and slot level to provide greater flexibility in the scheduling, while retaining the possibility to reduce overhead by switching to slot level classification.
  • FIG. 8 shows an example where two NNs, NN1 and NN2, are configured with the same TDD semi-static UL-DL configuration with the pattern DDDFFFFUUU.
  • each NN can classify the flexible resources indicated by the cell-specific semi-static TDD configuration further into fixed resources and flexible resources, and then, exchange this classification information among different network nodes via backhaul signaling.
  • FIG. 9 shows an example where the flexible slots configured for NN1, slots 3, 4 and 5, are restricted to be DL slots, and for NN2, slot 3 is restricted to be DL slot, and slots 5 and 6 are restricted to be UL slots.
  • the cell-specific RRC indicated flexible resources for NN1 can be classified as
  • the fixed and flexible resource classification can be exchanged via backhaul based on a reference semi-static TDD configuration, e.g., the common TDD configuration used for all network nodes.
  • the TDD-UL-DL-ConfigDedicated field (see TDD-UL-DL-Config information element from 3GPP TS 38.331 V15.3.0 below) can be used to indicate the fixed and flexible resource classification.
  • TDD-UL-DL-ConfigCommon :: SEQUENCE ⁇ referenceSubcarrierSpacing SubcarrierSpacing, pattern1 TDD-UL-DL-Pattern, pattern2 TDD-UL-DL-Pattern OPTIONAL, -- Need R ...
  • the TDD-UL-DL-ConfigurationCommon field or a modified TDD-UL-DL-ConfigurationCommon field can be used to indicate the fixed and flexible resource classification. This is similar to the methods discussed in bullet a) Network nodes with different semi-static TDD configurations above.
  • the slot-level resource classification indication for NN1 can be:
  • the proposed solution herein enables a NN to know the fixed resource configured for neighboring NNs.
  • the NN can protect the important channels/signals by scheduling or configuring them to the resources that will not be affected by CLI.
  • the network may transmit important DL signals/channels, such as SSB (Synchronization Signal Block), the PDCCH/PDSCH of URLLC (Ultra Reliable Low Latency Communication) traffic, in slots 0 and 1.
  • the network may also configure the PRACH resources or other important UL traffic such as URLLC PUSCH in slot 9.
  • the information of the fixed and flexible resource classification may also be used to assist the NN to understand more about the CLI situation.
  • the information may enable the NN to configure different interference measurement resources in different slots which exhibit characteristic CLI situations.
  • NN1 knows that there is always CLI from NN2 on slots 4, 5 and 7; there can be potential CLI from NN2 on slots 2, 3 and 6; and there will be CLI from NN2 if NN1 schedules downlink transmissions on slot 8. Therefore, for NN1, the UE-to-UE CLI measurements on slot 7 can be used as a reference.
  • NN1 can better estimate the CLI level on these potential CLI slots. Furthermore, measurements can also be performed on slots ⁇ 0,1,9 ⁇ which would provide a CLI-free reference where normal DL interference levels would be reflected.
  • the NN may also utilize the aggregate information received from multiple neighboring nodes. For instance, important signals/channels may be scheduled in slots which only experience CLI from a subset of the neighboring cells, while slots that experience CLI from many neighboring cells are not used for this purpose.
  • an inter-node condition method is proposed, where the time domain resources are classified as fixed and flexible resources, and only the information of the fixed/flexible resources is exchanged between different network nodes.
  • the exchanged information may consist of two parts that can be exchanged in different time scales.
  • a first part may carry the cell-specific TDD configuration.
  • a network node only signals this first part of the information to other network nodes when the cell-specific TDD configuration is updated in SIB1.
  • the second part carries the network node's intention on the long-term usage of the flexible resourced configured in SIB1, i.e., the intended/planned fixed and flexible resources classification within the SIB1-configured flexible resources.
  • the second part of the information can be exchanged more often than the first part of the information, e.g., based on long-term traffic situation changes in the network.
  • TDD-UL-DL-Config information element (IE) from 3GPP TS 38.331 V15.3.0)
  • structure similar to TDD-UL-DL-ConfigCommon conveys the first part and gives cell-specific TDD configuration
  • a structure similar to TDD-UL-DL-ConfigDedicated can be used to convey second part of the message, the long-term usage of flexible resources.
  • a single transmission of the exchanged information covers both the cell-specific TDD configuration and the intended usage of the SIB1-configured flexible resources for DL/UL transmissions.
  • the proposed message format does not differentiate explicitly if there is one TDD pattern or a concatenation of two TDD patterns as this differentiation is implicit within DL-UL transmission periodicity.
  • symbols within each slot defined by slotConfigList can be either all DL, all UL, or a combination with some flexible symbols.
  • this Intended-TDD-UL-DL-Config IE is the message exchanged between network nodes. This can also be applied to the case of network nodes with same semi-static TDD configurations as will be described in detail next, where only the slots with flexible symbols will be exchanged through this message exchange.
  • the message sent between network nodes for coordination uses a message format comprising two messages, where a first message has a similar structure to TDD-UL-DL-ConfigCommon and a second message has a similar structure to TDD-UL-DL-ConfigDedicated in the TDD-UL-DL-Config IE (in 3GPP TS 38.331) copied above.
  • the first message defines one or more concatenated TDD UL-DL pattern structures by specifying—for each TDD DL-UL—a number of consecutive full DL slots at the beginning of the TDD pattern (nrofDownlinkSlots), a number of consecutive DL symbols in the slot following the full DL slots (nrofDownlinkSymbols), a number of UL symbols in the end of the slot preceding the first full UL slot (nrofUplinkSymbols), and a number of consecutive full UL slots at the end of the TDD pattern (nrofUplinkSlots).
  • the remaining symbols or slots are being interpreted as flexible symbols or slots.
  • the second message defines an override of the flexible symbols or slots, for instance comprising a list of slots as in TDD-UL-DL-SlotConfig defined above in the proposed Intended-TDD-UL-DL-Config IE.
  • a motivation for using such a two-step message format is to reduce the overhead required for conveying the message information.
  • the TDD configuration is represented in the form of a bitmap. In other embodiments, the TDD configuration is indicated by means of an analytical description.
  • added conditions may be placed on fixed or flexible resource classification, by taking SSB and PRACH configurations into account.
  • a network node In NR rel-15, it is possible for a network node to configure SSB transmissions on the flexible time resources indicated by SIB1, and it is also possible for a network node to configure PRACH occasions in the flexible time resources configured by SIB1, and these PRACH occasions are valid if certain conditions are met. More specifically, a PRACH occasion within the SIB1-configured flexible time resource part is valid as long as it does not precede or collide with an SSB in the RACH slot and it is at least N symbols after the DL part and the last symbol of an SSB. N is 0 or 2 depending on PRACH format and subcarrier spacing.
  • the network nodes consider its SSB and PRACH configurations and not only its TDD pattern configuration when determining the fixed/flexible resource indication message.
  • a network node may indicate that those SIB1-configured flexible symbols/slots which comprises SSB transmission (if such symbols/slots exist) are part of the fixed DL resources in the message signaled to other network nodes.
  • a network node may indicate that those SIB1-configured flexible symbols/slots that are valid for PRACH transmissions (if such symbols/slots exist) are part of the fixed UL resources in the message signaled to other network nodes.
  • some extra parameters are added in the backhaul signaling to indicate the fixed DL resources for SSB transmission in the SIB1-indicated flexible resource, and the fixed UL resources for PRACH transmission in the SIB1-indicated flexible resource.
  • the parameters can include, e.g., the PRACH configuration index in the SIB1.
  • the coordination messages may contain position information associated with a UE or a group of UEs.
  • a NN uses its knowledge about the geographical position of its neighbor nodes and the knowledge about the relative position of a group of its connected UEs, to assemble a TDD-UL-DL-ConfigDedicated for that group of its connected UEs.
  • FIG. 11 illustrates a wireless network, in accordance with some embodiments.
  • a wireless network such as the example wireless network illustrated in FIG. 11 .
  • the wireless network of FIG. 11 only depicts network 1106 , network nodes 1160 and 1160 b , and WDs 1110 , 1110 b , and 1110 c .
  • a wireless network may further include any additional elements suitable to support communication between wireless devices or between a wireless device and another communication device, such as a landline telephone, a service provider, or any other network node or end device.
  • network node 1160 is depicted with additional detail.
  • the wireless network may provide communication and other types of services to one or more wireless devices to facilitate the wireless devices' access to and/or use of the services provided by, or via, the wireless network.
  • the wireless network may comprise and/or interface with any type of communication, telecommunication, data, cellular, and/or radio network or other similar type of system.
  • the wireless network may be configured to operate according to specific standards or other types of predefined rules or procedures.
  • particular embodiments of the wireless network may implement communication standards, such as Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS), Long Term Evolution (LTE), and/or other suitable 2G, 3G, 4G, or 5G standards; wireless local area network (WLAN) standards, such as the IEEE 802.11 standards; and/or any other appropriate wireless communication standard, such as the Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMax), Bluetooth, Z-Wave and/or ZigBee standards.
  • GSM Global System for Mobile Communications
  • UMTS Universal Mobile Telecommunications System
  • LTE Long Term Evolution
  • WLAN wireless local area network
  • WiMax Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access
  • Bluetooth Z-Wave and/or ZigBee standards.
  • Network 1106 may comprise one or more backhaul networks, core networks, IP networks, public switched telephone networks (PSTNs), packet data networks, optical networks, wide-area networks (WANs), local area networks (LANs), wireless local area networks (WLANs), wired networks, wireless networks, metropolitan area networks, and other networks to enable communication between devices.
  • PSTNs public switched telephone networks
  • WANs wide-area networks
  • LANs local area networks
  • WLANs wireless local area networks
  • wired networks wireless networks, metropolitan area networks, and other networks to enable communication between devices.
  • Network node 1160 and WD 1110 comprise various components.
  • the components of network node 1160 are described in more detail below. These components work together in order to provide network node and/or wireless device functionality, such as providing wireless connections in a wireless network.
  • the wireless network may comprise any number of wired or wireless networks, network nodes, base stations, controllers, wireless devices, relay stations, and/or any other components or systems that may facilitate or participate in the communication of data and/or signals whether via wired or wireless connections.
  • network node refers to equipment capable, configured, arranged and/or operable to communicate directly or indirectly with a wireless device and/or with other network nodes or equipment in the wireless network to enable and/or provide wireless access to the wireless device and/or to perform other functions (e.g., administration) in the wireless network.
  • network nodes include, but are not limited to, access points (APs) (e.g., radio access points), base stations (BSs) (e.g., radio base stations, Node Bs, evolved Node Bs (eNBs) and NR NodeBs (gNBs)).
  • APs access points
  • BSs base stations
  • eNBs evolved Node Bs
  • gNBs NR NodeBs
  • Base stations may be categorized based on the amount of coverage they provide (or, stated differently, based on their transmit power level) and may then also be referred to as femto base stations, pico base stations, micro base stations, or macro base stations.
  • a base station may be a relay node or a relay donor node controlling a relay.
  • a network node may also include one or more (or all) parts of a distributed radio base station such as centralized digital units and/or remote radio units (RRUs), sometimes referred to as Remote Radio Heads (RRHs). Such remote radio units may or may not be integrated with an antenna as an antenna integrated radio.
  • RRUs remote radio units
  • RRHs Remote Radio Heads
  • Such remote radio units may or may not be integrated with an antenna as an antenna integrated radio.
  • Parts of a distributed radio base station may also be referred to as nodes in a distributed antenna system (DAS).
  • DAS distributed antenna system
  • network nodes include multi-standard radio (MSR) equipment such as MSR BSs, network controllers such as radio network controllers (RNCs) or base station controllers (BSCs), base transceiver stations (BTSs), transmission points, transmission nodes, multi-cell/multicast coordination entities (MCEs), core network nodes (e.g., MSCs, MMEs), O&M nodes, OSS nodes, SON nodes, positioning nodes (e.g., E-SMLCs), and/or MDTs.
  • MSR multi-standard radio
  • RNCs radio network controllers
  • BSCs base station controllers
  • BTSs base transceiver stations
  • transmission points transmission nodes
  • MCEs multi-cell/multicast coordination entities
  • core network nodes e.g., MSCs, MMEs
  • O&M nodes e.g., OSS nodes, SON nodes, positioning nodes (e.g., E-SMLCs), and/or MDTs.
  • network nodes may represent any suitable device (or group of devices) capable, configured, arranged, and/or operable to enable and/or provide a wireless device with access to the wireless network or to provide some service to a wireless device that has accessed the wireless network.
  • network node 1160 includes processing circuitry 1170 , device readable medium 1180 , interface 1190 , auxiliary equipment 1184 , power source 1186 , power circuitry 1187 , and antenna 1162 .
  • network node 1160 illustrated in the example wireless network of FIG. 11 may represent a device that includes the illustrated combination of hardware components, other embodiments may comprise network nodes with different combinations of components. It is to be understood that a network node comprises any suitable combination of hardware and/or software needed to perform the tasks, features, functions and methods disclosed herein.
  • network node 1160 may comprise multiple different physical components that make up a single illustrated component (e.g., device readable medium 1180 may comprise multiple separate hard drives as well as multiple RAM modules).
  • network node 1160 may be composed of multiple physically separate components (e.g., a NodeB component and a RNC component, or a BTS component and a BSC component, etc.), which may each have their own respective components.
  • network node 1160 comprises multiple separate components (e.g., BTS and BSC components)
  • one or more of the separate components may be shared among several network nodes.
  • a single RNC may control multiple NodeB's.
  • each unique NodeB and RNC pair may in some instances be considered a single separate network node.
  • network node 1160 may be configured to support multiple radio access technologies (RATs).
  • RATs radio access technologies
  • Network node 1160 may also include multiple sets of the various illustrated components for different wireless technologies integrated into network node 1160 , such as, for example, GSM, WCDMA, LTE, NR, WiFi, or Bluetooth wireless technologies. These wireless technologies may be integrated into the same or different chip or set of chips and other components within network node 1160 .
  • Processing circuitry 1170 is configured to perform any determining, calculating, or similar operations (e.g., certain obtaining operations) described herein as being provided by a network node. These operations performed by processing circuitry 1170 may include processing information obtained by processing circuitry 1170 by, for example, converting the obtained information into other information, comparing the obtained information or converted information to information stored in the network node, and/or performing one or more operations based on the obtained information or converted information, and as a result of said processing making a determination.
  • processing information obtained by processing circuitry 1170 by, for example, converting the obtained information into other information, comparing the obtained information or converted information to information stored in the network node, and/or performing one or more operations based on the obtained information or converted information, and as a result of said processing making a determination.
  • Processing circuitry 1170 may comprise a combination of one or more of a microprocessor, controller, microcontroller, central processing unit, digital signal processor, application-specific integrated circuit, field programmable gate array, or any other suitable computing device, resource, or combination of hardware, software and/or encoded logic operable to provide, either alone or in conjunction with other network node 1160 components, such as device readable medium 1180 , network node 1160 functionality.
  • processing circuitry 1170 may execute instructions stored in device readable medium 1180 or in memory within processing circuitry 1170 .
  • Such functionality may include providing any of the various wireless features, functions, or benefits discussed herein.
  • processing circuitry 1170 may include a system on a chip (SOC).
  • SOC system on a chip
  • processing circuitry 1170 may include one or more of radio frequency (RF) transceiver circuitry 1172 and baseband processing circuitry 1174 .
  • radio frequency (RF) transceiver circuitry 1172 and baseband processing circuitry 1174 may be on separate chips (or sets of chips), boards, or units, such as radio units and digital units.
  • part or all of RF transceiver circuitry 1172 and baseband processing circuitry 1174 may be on the same chip or set of chips, boards, or units.
  • processing circuitry 1170 executing instructions stored on device readable medium 1180 or memory within processing circuitry 1170 .
  • some or all of the functionality may be provided by processing circuitry 1170 without executing instructions stored on a separate or discrete device readable medium, such as in a hard-wired manner.
  • processing circuitry 1170 can be configured to perform the described functionality. The benefits provided by such functionality are not limited to processing circuitry 1170 alone or to other components of network node 1160 but are enjoyed by network node 1160 as a whole, and/or by end users and the wireless network generally.
  • Device readable medium 1180 may comprise any form of volatile or non-volatile computer readable memory including, without limitation, persistent storage, solid-state memory, remotely mounted memory, magnetic media, optical media, random access memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM), mass storage media (for example, a hard disk), removable storage media (for example, a flash drive, a Compact Disk (CD) or a Digital Video Disk (DVD)), and/or any other volatile or non-volatile, non-transitory device readable and/or computer-executable memory devices that store information, data, and/or instructions that may be used by processing circuitry 1170 .
  • volatile or non-volatile computer readable memory including, without limitation, persistent storage, solid-state memory, remotely mounted memory, magnetic media, optical media, random access memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM), mass storage media (for example, a hard disk), removable storage media (for example, a flash drive, a Compact Disk (CD) or a Digital Video Disk (DVD)), and/or any other volatile
  • Device readable medium 1180 may store any suitable instructions, data or information, including a computer program, software, an application including one or more of logic, rules, code, tables, etc. and/or other instructions capable of being executed by processing circuitry 1170 and, utilized by network node 1160 .
  • Device readable medium 1180 may be used to store any calculations made by processing circuitry 1170 and/or any data received via interface 1190 .
  • processing circuitry 1170 and device readable medium 1180 may be considered to be integrated.
  • Interface 1190 is used in the wired or wireless communication of signalling and/or data between network node 1160 , network node 1160 b , network 1106 , and/or WDs 1110 .
  • interface 1190 comprises port(s)/terminal(s) 1194 to send and receive data, for example to and from network 1106 , or to and from network node 1160 b via a NN-to-NN interface 1191 (such as the Xn interface), over a wired connection.
  • Interface 1190 also includes radio front end circuitry 1192 that may be coupled to, or in certain embodiments a part of, antenna 1162 .
  • Radio front end circuitry 1192 comprises filters 1198 and amplifiers 1196 .
  • Radio front end circuitry 1192 may be connected to antenna 1162 and processing circuitry 1170 . Radio front end circuitry may be configured to condition signals communicated between antenna 1162 and processing circuitry 1170 . Radio front end circuitry 1192 may receive digital data that is to be sent out to other network nodes or WDs via a wireless connection. Radio front end circuitry 1192 may convert the digital data into a radio signal having the appropriate channel and bandwidth parameters using a combination of filters 1198 and/or amplifiers 1196 . The radio signal may then be transmitted via antenna 1162 . Similarly, when receiving data, antenna 1162 may collect radio signals which are then converted into digital data by radio front end circuitry 1192 . The digital data may be passed to processing circuitry 1170 . In other embodiments, the interface may comprise different components and/or different combinations of components.
  • network node 1160 may not include separate radio front end circuitry 1192 , instead, processing circuitry 1170 may comprise radio front end circuitry and may be connected to antenna 1162 without separate radio front end circuitry 1192 .
  • processing circuitry 1170 may comprise radio front end circuitry and may be connected to antenna 1162 without separate radio front end circuitry 1192 .
  • all or some of RF transceiver circuitry 1172 may be considered a part of interface 1190 .
  • interface 1190 may include one or more ports or terminals 1194 , radio front end circuitry 1192 , and RF transceiver circuitry 1172 , as part of a radio unit (not shown), and interface 1190 may communicate with baseband processing circuitry 1174 , which is part of a digital unit (not shown).
  • Antenna 1162 may include one or more antennas, or antenna arrays, configured to send and/or receive wireless signals. Antenna 1162 may be coupled to radio front end circuitry 1190 and may be any type of antenna capable of transmitting and receiving data and/or signals wirelessly. In some embodiments, antenna 1162 may comprise one or more omni-directional, sector or panel antennas operable to transmit/receive radio signals between, for example, 2 GHz and 66 GHz. An omni-directional antenna may be used to transmit/receive radio signals in any direction, a sector antenna may be used to transmit/receive radio signals from devices within a particular area, and a panel antenna may be a line of sight antenna used to transmit/receive radio signals in a relatively straight line. In some instances, the use of more than one antenna may be referred to as MIMO. In certain embodiments, antenna 1162 may be separate from network node 1160 and may be connectable to network node 1160 through an interface or port.
  • Antenna 1162 , interface 1190 , and/or processing circuitry 1170 may be configured to perform any receiving operations and/or certain obtaining operations described herein as being performed by a network node. Any information, data and/or signals may be received from a wireless device, another network node and/or any other network equipment. Similarly, antenna 1162 , interface 1190 , and/or processing circuitry 1170 may be configured to perform any transmitting operations described herein as being performed by a network node. Any information, data and/or signals may be transmitted to a wireless device, another network node and/or any other network equipment.
  • Power circuitry 1187 may comprise, or be coupled to, power management circuitry and is configured to supply the components of network node 1160 with power for performing the functionality described herein. Power circuitry 1187 may receive power from power source 1186 . Power source 1186 and/or power circuitry 1187 may be configured to provide power to the various components of network node 1160 in a form suitable for the respective components (e.g., at a voltage and current level needed for each respective component). Power source 1186 may either be included in, or external to, power circuitry 1187 and/or network node 1160 .
  • network node 1160 may be connectable to an external power source (e.g., an electricity outlet) via an input circuitry or interface such as an electrical cable, whereby the external power source supplies power to power circuitry 1187 .
  • power source 1186 may comprise a source of power in the form of a battery or battery pack which is connected to, or integrated in, power circuitry 1187 .
  • the battery may provide backup power should the external power source fail.
  • Other types of power sources, such as photovoltaic devices, may also be used.
  • network node 1160 may include additional components beyond those shown in FIG. 11 that may be responsible for providing certain aspects of the network node's functionality, including any of the functionality described herein and/or any functionality necessary to support the subject matter described herein.
  • network node 1160 may include user interface equipment to allow input of information into network node 1160 and to allow output of information from network node 1160 . This may allow a user to perform diagnostic, maintenance, repair, and other administrative functions for network node 1160 .
  • wireless device refers to a device capable, configured, arranged and/or operable to communicate wirelessly with network nodes and/or other wireless devices.
  • the term WD may be used interchangeably herein with user equipment (UE).
  • Communicating wirelessly may involve transmitting and/or receiving wireless signals using electromagnetic waves, radio waves, infrared waves, and/or other types of signals suitable for conveying information through air.
  • a WD may be configured to transmit and/or receive information without direct human interaction.
  • a WD may be designed to transmit information to a network on a predetermined schedule, when triggered by an internal or external event, or in response to requests from the network.
  • Examples of a WD include, but are not limited to, a smart phone, a mobile phone, a cell phone, a voice over IP (VoIP) phone, a wireless local loop phone, a desktop computer, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a wireless cameras, a gaming console or device, a music storage device, a playback appliance, a wearable terminal device, a wireless endpoint, a mobile station, a tablet, a laptop, a laptop-embedded equipment (LEE), a laptop-mounted equipment (LME), a smart device, a wireless customer-premise equipment (CPE). a vehicle-mounted wireless terminal device, etc.
  • VoIP voice over IP
  • PDA personal digital assistant
  • PDA personal digital assistant
  • gaming console or device a wireless cameras
  • a gaming console or device a music storage device
  • a playback appliance a wearable terminal device
  • a wireless endpoint a mobile station, a tablet, a laptop, a laptop-embedded equipment (LEE), a laptop
  • a WD may support device-to-device (D2D) communication, for example by implementing a 3GPP standard for sidelink communication, vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V), vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I), vehicle-to-everything (V2X) and may in this case be referred to as a D2D communication device.
  • D2D device-to-device
  • V2V vehicle-to-vehicle
  • V2I vehicle-to-infrastructure
  • V2X vehicle-to-everything
  • a WD may represent a machine or other device that performs monitoring and/or measurements and transmits the results of such monitoring and/or measurements to another WD and/or a network node.
  • the WD may in this case be a machine-to-machine (M2M) device, which may in a 3GPP context be referred to as an MTC device.
  • M2M machine-to-machine
  • the WD may be a UE implementing the 3GPP narrow band internet of things (NB-IoT) standard.
  • NB-IoT narrow band internet of things
  • machines or devices are sensors, metering devices such as power meters, industrial machinery, or home or personal appliances (e.g. refrigerators, televisions, etc.) personal wearables (e.g., watches, fitness trackers, etc.).
  • a WD may represent a vehicle or other equipment that is capable of monitoring and/or reporting on its operational status or other functions associated with its operation.
  • a WD as described above may represent the endpoint of a wireless connection, in which case the device may be referred to as a wireless terminal. Furthermore, a WD as described above may be mobile, in which case it may also be referred to as a mobile device or a mobile terminal.
  • wireless device 1110 includes antenna, interface, processing circuitry, device readable medium, user interface equipment, auxiliary equipment, power source and power circuitry.
  • WD 1110 may include multiple sets of one or more of the illustrated components for different wireless technologies supported by WD 1110 , such as, for example, GSM, WCDMA, LTE, NR, WiFi, WiMAX, or Bluetooth wireless technologies, just to mention a few. These wireless technologies may be integrated into the same or different chips or set of chips as other components within WD 1110 .
  • FIG. 12 is a schematic block diagram illustrating a virtualization environment 1200 in which functions implemented by some embodiments may be virtualized.
  • virtualizing means creating virtual versions of apparatuses or devices which may include virtualizing hardware platforms, storage devices and networking resources.
  • virtualization can be applied to a node (e.g., a virtualized base station or a virtualized radio access node) or components thereof and relates to an implementation in which at least a portion of the functionality is implemented as one or more virtual components (e.g., via one or more applications, components, functions, virtual machines or containers executing on one or more physical processing nodes in one or more networks).
  • some or all of the functions described herein may be implemented as virtual components executed by one or more virtual machines implemented in one or more virtual environments 1200 hosted by one or more of hardware nodes 1230 . Further, in embodiments in which the virtual node is not a radio access node or does not require radio connectivity (e.g., a core network node), then the network node may be entirely virtualized.
  • the virtual node is not a radio access node or does not require radio connectivity (e.g., a core network node)
  • the network node may be entirely virtualized.
  • the functions may be implemented by one or more applications 1220 (which may alternatively be called software instances, virtual appliances, network functions, virtual nodes, virtual network functions, etc.) operative to implement some of the features, functions, and/or benefits of some of the embodiments disclosed herein.
  • Applications 1220 are run in virtualization environment 1200 which provides hardware 1230 comprising processing circuitry 1260 and memory 1290 .
  • Memory 1290 contains instructions 1295 executable by processing circuitry 1260 whereby application 1220 is operative to provide one or more of the features, benefits, and/or functions disclosed herein.
  • Virtualization environment 1200 comprises general-purpose or special-purpose network hardware devices 1230 comprising a set of one or more processors or processing circuitry 1260 , which may be commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) processors, dedicated Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs), or any other type of processing circuitry including digital or analog hardware components or special purpose processors.
  • processors or processing circuitry 1260 which may be commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) processors, dedicated Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs), or any other type of processing circuitry including digital or analog hardware components or special purpose processors.
  • Each hardware device may comprise memory 1290 - 1 which may be non-persistent memory for temporarily storing instructions 1295 or software executed by processing circuitry 1260 .
  • Each hardware device may comprise one or more network interface controllers (NICs) 1270 , also known as network interface cards, which include physical network interface 1280 .
  • NICs network interface controllers
  • Each hardware device may also include non-transitory, persistent, machine-readable storage media 1290 - 2 having stored therein software 1295 and/or instructions executable by processing circuitry 1260 .
  • Software 1295 may include any type of software including software for instantiating one or more virtualization layers 1250 (also referred to as hypervisors), software to execute virtual machines 1240 as well as software allowing it to execute functions, features and/or benefits described in relation with some embodiments described herein.
  • Virtual machines 1240 comprise virtual processing, virtual memory, virtual networking or interface and virtual storage, and may be run by a corresponding virtualization layer 1250 or hypervisor. Different embodiments of the instance of virtual appliance 1220 may be implemented on one or more of virtual machines 1240 , and the implementations may be made in different ways.
  • processing circuitry 1260 executes software 1295 to instantiate the hypervisor or virtualization layer 1250 , which may sometimes be referred to as a virtual machine monitor (VMM).
  • Virtualization layer 1250 may present a virtual operating platform that appears like networking hardware to virtual machine 1240 .
  • hardware 1230 may be a standalone network node with generic or specific components. Hardware 1230 may comprise antenna 12225 and may implement some functions via virtualization. Alternatively, hardware 1230 may be part of a larger cluster of hardware (e.g. such as in a data center or customer premise equipment (CPE)) where many hardware nodes work together and are managed via management and orchestration (MANO) 12100 , which, among others, oversees lifecycle management of applications 1220 .
  • CPE customer premise equipment
  • NFV network function virtualization
  • NFV may be used to consolidate many network equipment types onto industry standard high volume server hardware, physical switches, and physical storage, which can be located in data centers, and customer premise equipment.
  • virtual machine 1240 may be a software implementation of a physical machine that runs programs as if they were executing on a physical, non-virtualized machine.
  • Each of virtual machines 1240 , and that part of hardware 1230 that executes that virtual machine be it hardware dedicated to that virtual machine and/or hardware shared by that virtual machine with others of the virtual machines 1240 , forms a separate virtual network elements (VNE).
  • VNE virtual network elements
  • VNF Virtual Network Function
  • one or more radio units 12200 that each include one or more transmitters 12220 and one or more receivers 12210 may be coupled to one or more antennas 12225 .
  • Radio units 12200 may communicate directly with hardware nodes 1230 via one or more appropriate network interfaces and may be used in combination with the virtual components to provide a virtual node with radio capabilities, such as a radio access node or a base station.
  • control system 12230 which may alternatively be used for communication between the hardware nodes 1230 and radio units 12200 .
  • FIG. 13 a depicts a method performed by a receiving network node, 1160 , 1160 b , for CLI mitigation.
  • the method comprises receiving 1310 , from at least one sending network node, a time division duplex configuration of the at least one sending network node, the time division duplex configuration identifying:
  • the method further comprises adapting 1320 operations in a cell based on the received time division duplex configuration for mitigating CLI with the at least one sending network node.
  • adapting 1320 operations in the cell may comprise at least one of: scheduling 1804 a transmission or channel; configure channel resources; and configure interference measurement resources.
  • the method may further comprise performing at least one measurement on the configured interference measurement resources to estimate CLI levels.
  • adapting operations may further comprise determining a slot or symbol in the cell that will not be affected by CLI with the at least one sending network node, and adapting operations based on the determined slot or symbol.
  • Determining the slot in the cell that will not be affected by CLI may comprise: determining the slot in the cell to correspond to a slot identified as a fixed uplink or downlink slot of the time division duplex configuration.
  • Adapting operations based on the determined slot may comprise scheduling an uplink transmission when the determined slot corresponds to a slot identified as a fixed uplink slot of the time division duplex configuration and scheduling a downlink transmission when the determined slot corresponds to a slot identified as fixed downlink slot of the time division duplex configuration.
  • the time division duplex configuration is received via a backhaul connection between the receiving and sending network node.
  • the time division duplex configuration is received over an F1 interface or an Xn interface between the receiving and sending network node.
  • the time division duplex configuration is received in a message listing the slots of the time division duplex configuration, each of the listed slots being identified by an index. Symbols within each of the listed slots may be indicated to be one of: all downlink symbols identifying the slot as a fixed downlink slot, all uplink symbols identifying the slot as a fixed uplink slot, and a combination of downlink symbols, uplink symbols, and symbols with undefined transmission direction identifying the slot as a flexible slot.
  • the message listing the slots is of the message format proposed above: Intended-TDD-UL-DL-Config IE.
  • FIG. 13 b depicts a method performed by a sending network node, 1160 , 1160 b , for CLI mitigation.
  • the method comprises determining 1330 a time division duplex configuration of the sending network node.
  • the time division duplex configuration identifies at least one slot of the time division duplex configuration as either a fixed uplink slot for which all symbols are for uplink transmission or a fixed downlink slot for which all symbols are for downlink transmission; and at least one slot of the time division duplex configuration as a flexible slot for which at least one symbol has an undefined transmission direction and the remaining symbols of the slot, if any, have a defined transmission direction which is either uplink or downlink transmission.
  • the method further comprises sending 1340 , to at least one receiving network node, the determined time division duplex configuration, for enabling CLI mitigation by the at least one receiving network node.
  • the time division duplex configuration may be determined based on a cell-specific time division duplex configuration of the sending node. Alternatively, or additionally, the time division duplex configuration may be determined based on at least one of a synchronization signal block and a random access transmission configuration.
  • the time division duplex configuration may be sent via a backhaul connection between the sending and receiving network node.
  • the time division duplex configuration may be sent over an F1 interface or an Xn interface between the sending and receiving network node.
  • the time division duplex configuration may be sent in a message listing the slots of the time division duplex configuration, each of the listed slots being identified by an index. Symbols within each of the listed slots may be indicated to be one of: all downlink symbols identifying the slot as a fixed downlink slot, all uplink symbols identifying the slot as a fixed uplink slot, and a combination of downlink symbols, uplink symbols, and symbols with undefined transmission direction identifying the slot as a flexible slot.
  • FIG. 13 c depicts a method by a base station for CLI mitigation, according to certain embodiments. Boxes with dashed lines indicate optional steps.
  • the base station receives, from at least one other base station, information associated with identifying the at least one time resource of the other base station as a fixed time resource and/or a flexible time resource. Based on the information received from the at least one other base station, the base station schedules a transmission or channel to mitigate the CLI at step 1804 .
  • FIG. 13 d depicts another method by a base station for CLI mitigation, according to certain embodiments. Boxes with dashed lines indicate optional steps.
  • the base station classifies at least one time resource of the base station as a fixed time resource and/or a flexible time resource.
  • the base station transmits, to at least one other base station, information identifying the at least one time resource of the base station as the fixed time resource and/or the flexible time resource for performance of CLI mitigation by the at least one other base station.
  • FIG. 14 a illustrates a schematic block diagram of a virtual apparatus 1900 in a wireless network (for example, the wireless network shown in FIG. 11 ).
  • the apparatus may be implemented in a network node (e.g., network node 1160 shown in FIG. 11 ).
  • Apparatus 1900 is operable to carry out the example method described with reference to FIGS. 13 a and 13 c and possibly any other processes or methods disclosed herein. Boxes with dashed lines indicate optional modules. It is also to be understood that the method of FIG. 13 a or 13 c is not necessarily carried out solely by apparatus 1900 . At least some operations of the method can be performed by one or more other entities.
  • Virtual Apparatus 1900 may comprise processing circuitry, which may include one or more microprocessor or microcontrollers, as well as other digital hardware, which may include digital signal processors (DSPs), special-purpose digital logic, and the like.
  • the processing circuitry may be configured to execute program code stored in memory, which may include one or several types of memory such as read-only memory (ROM), random-access memory, cache memory, flash memory devices, optical storage devices, etc.
  • Program code stored in memory includes program instructions for executing one or more telecommunications and/or data communications protocols as well as instructions for carrying out one or more of the techniques described herein, in several embodiments.
  • the processing circuitry may be used to cause receiving module 1910 , adapting module 1905 , optional scheduling module 1920 , and any other suitable units of apparatus 1900 to perform corresponding functions according to one or more embodiments of the present disclosure.
  • receiving module 1910 may perform certain of the receiving functions of the apparatus 1900 .
  • receiving module 1910 may receive, from at least one other base station, information identifying the at least one time resource of the other base station as a fixed time resource and/or a flexible time resource; or receiving module 1910 may receive from at least one sending network node, a time division duplex configuration of the at least one sending network node, the time division duplex configuration identifying: at least one slot of the time division duplex configuration as either a fixed uplink slot for which all symbols are for uplink transmission or a fixed downlink slot for which all symbols are for downlink transmission; and at least one slot of the time division duplex configuration as a flexible slot for which at least one symbol has an undefined transmission direction and the remaining symbols of the slot, if any, have a defined transmission direction which is either uplink or downlink.
  • adapting module 1905 may perform certain of the adapting functions of the apparatus 1900 .
  • adapting module 1905 may adapt operations in a cell based on the received time division duplex configuration for mitigating CLI with the at least one sending network node.
  • the adapting module 1905 may comprise a scheduling module 1920 that may perform certain of the scheduling functions of the apparatus 1900 .
  • scheduling module 1920 may schedule a transmission or channel to mitigate the CLI based on the information received from the at least one other base station.
  • FIG. 14 b illustrates a schematic block diagram of a virtual apparatus 2100 in a wireless network (for example, the wireless network shown in FIG. 11 ).
  • the apparatus may be implemented in a network node (e.g., network node 1160 shown in FIG. 11 ). Boxes with dashed lines indicate optional modules.
  • Apparatus 2100 is operable to carry out the example method described with reference to FIG. 13 b or 13 d and possibly any other processes or methods disclosed herein. It is also to be understood that the method of FIG. 13 b or 13 d is not necessarily carried out solely by apparatus 2100 . At least some operations of the method can be performed by one or more other entities.
  • Virtual Apparatus 2100 may comprise processing circuitry, which may include one or more microprocessor or microcontrollers, as well as other digital hardware, which may include digital signal processors (DSPs), special-purpose digital logic, and the like.
  • the processing circuitry may be configured to execute program code stored in memory, which may include one or several types of memory such as read-only memory (ROM), random-access memory, cache memory, flash memory devices, optical storage devices, etc.
  • Program code stored in memory includes program instructions for executing one or more telecommunications and/or data communications protocols as well as instructions for carrying out one or more of the techniques described herein, in several embodiments.
  • the processing circuitry may be used to cause determining module 2105 , classifying module 2110 , transmitting module 2120 , and any other suitable units of apparatus 2100 to perform corresponding functions according one or more embodiments of the present disclosure.
  • determining module 2105 may perform certain of the determining functions of the apparatus 2100 .
  • determining module 2105 may determine a time division duplex configuration of the sending network node, the time division duplex configuration identifying: at least one slot of the time division duplex configuration as either a fixed uplink slot for which all symbols are for uplink transmission or a fixed downlink slot for which all symbols are for downlink transmission; and at least one slot of the time division duplex configuration as a flexible slot for which at least one symbol has an undefined transmission direction and the remaining symbols of the slot, if any, have a defined transmission direction which is either uplink or downlink transmission.
  • the determining module 2105 may comprise a classifying module 2110 that may perform certain of the classifying functions of the apparatus 2100 .
  • classifying module 2110 may classify at least one time resource of the base station as a fixed time resource and/or a flexible time resource.
  • transmitting module 2120 may perform certain of the transmitting functions of the apparatus 2100 .
  • transmitting module 2120 may transmit, to at least one other base station, information identifying the at least one time resource of the base station as the fixed time resource and/or the flexible time resource for performance of CLI mitigation by the at least one other base station; or the transmitting module 2120 may send to at least one receiving network node, the determined time division duplex configuration, for enabling CLI mitigation by the at least one receiving network node.
  • the term unit may have conventional meaning in the field of electronics, electrical devices and/or electronic devices and may include, for example, electrical and/or electronic circuitry, devices, modules, processors, memories, logic solid state and/or discrete devices, computer programs or instructions for carrying out respective tasks, procedures, computations, outputs, and/or displaying functions, and so on, as such as those that are described herein.

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CN113228821A (zh) 2021-08-06
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US20220110136A1 (en) 2022-04-07

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